Skylab occupies a difficult spot in space history. One thing you hear
too much when you’re a Skylab fan is how the first U.S. space
station didn’t have any applications or purposes beyond its three
crewed missions. This fallacy can be shot down on many levels, but
one area that doesn’t get enough attention is how Skylab
revolutionized the use of computer systems aboard spacecraft, and how
its systems led to the development of the world’s most
sophisticated flying machine, the Space Shuttle.